A major airline just added flights at the Miami airport. Here are the new connections

Delta Airlines may be headquartered in Atlanta, but Miami is gaining importance in the carrier’s efforts to connect North America and South America, giving travelers more options to travel within the United States.

Delta, one of the three biggest airlines in the United States, is adding four new domestic flights in December out of Miami International Airport:

▪ A new Minneapolis/St. Paul route starts Dec. 21, the third daily flight between the two destinations.

▪ Service between Miami and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport will grow by one flight, also beginning Dec. 21, also giving that route three daily flights.

▪ Earlier this month, Delta added one new flight between Miami and New York John F. Kennedy International Airport to give travelers a total of five daily options.

▪ It also upped the number of daily flights to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport from 9 to 10.

How Delta’s expansion unfolded

The expanded domestic reach to and from the Miami airport comprises a year-long growth plan that came after Delta finally received regulatory approval last year of its partnership with LATAM Airlines Group. LATAM formed in 2012 by the merger of Chile’s LAN airline and Brazil’s TAM carrier.

In 2019, Delta agreed to pay about $2 billion for a 20% stake in LATAM, which at the time was part of American Airlines’ Oneworld Alliance. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. After LATAM filed for bankruptcy in 2020, the companies restructured terms. Delta eventually invested about $660 million for 10% equity.

Now Delta has a large partner to take travelers to much of Latin America and so the airline is looking to better connect the continents.

The partnership “is bringing new alternatives across all of the U.S. and South America,” said Alain Bellemare, Delta’s president of international service, in an interview with the Miami Herald in July. “It is game-changing, especially for Miami.”

The four flights added this month give Delta 37 domestic flights out of Miami, an all-time high for the carrier

Ten of those, over one-fourth, were added this year, including a new route, Miami to Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., which began in November. Boston and La Guardia also saw increased service.

Delta has over 500 employees in its Miami office. It has another 400 staff working at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International and Palm Beach International airports.

The growth also comes as numerous carriers add flights out of Miami International Airport and its importance as a global transport hub increases. It is on track to surpass 52 million passengers this year, what would be an increase over its record-breaking 2022.

Other new flights out of Miami airport

United Airlines is adding over a dozen flights mostly for the winter. That includes two new flights between Chicago O’Hare and Miami International Airport for the Christmas holidays, giving it a total of 10 between the two airports. But by the first quarter of next year, United will average eight daily departures, an increase from five in the first quarter of this year.

MIA’s largest customer, American Airlines, said this month that it has “its largest-ever winter international schedule from MIA” this year, operating nonstop service to 45 international destinations. It has expanded its coverage to Latin America and the Caribbean.

Starting on March 28, 2024, American will offer daily flights between Miami and Tulum, Mexico. American serves more than 150 places from MIA with more than 380 peak daily flights this winter.

Global carriers including Qatar Airways, Scandinavian Airlines, and Finnair have resumed or ramped up flights. So too have low-cost carriers like Norway’s Norse Atlantic.

In September, Haitian airline Sunrise Airways launched flights four times a week between Miami International Airport and Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince. It also began flying four times a week between MIA and Hugo Chavez International Airport in Cap-Haitien.

For Delta, the new flights have increased the number of seats on its airplanes out of Miami by 27% compared to one year ago. That is about 1,300 additional seats per day from MIA, it said.

“Delta is serious about its presence in Miami and across South Florida,” Luciano Macagno, Delta’s managing director for Latin America, the Caribbean, and South Florida, said in a statement. “We’re demonstrating that through new partnerships and network enhancements.”